This page contains adventure games I have written on
the Commodore 64, 128, Plus/4, C16, and VIC-20 (8-bit)
computers. All are in the public domain, and are free
to download and play. Games with links are currently
online to download.

Current games available include:

Orathan - I wrote Orathan as a test. Could I squeeze a
decent sized adventure game into 53 blocks on disk?
Looks like I didn't do too bad after all! Works with
VICE, MESS, and most others. For the Commodore 64,
Plus/4 and 128.

Esotera: The Stones of Esotera - Another one of my
Plus/4 adventure games. Also included on this disk:
"Dyiana", "Sea Hunter" and "West Front to Apse II",
all for the Plus/4. Works with Yape, Minus-4, and
others. For the Commodore Plus/4.

Paul's Adventures (Disk 1 & 2, Vol. 1) - It took me
forever to put this one up, but here it is! All of my
C64 *and* C128 adventure games on two disk images!
You'll want to probably use a blank disk or blank
image file for saving your saved game characters to
disk. Works on VICE, MESS, and most others. For the
Commodore 64 and 128.

Mark...of the Vampire! - A version of my game "Chateu
Le Mont" (Windows/DOS) for the C-64. Explore a castle
in search of a vampire haunting a local village. Load
game with LOAD '*' ,8. Works on VICE, MESS, and most
others. For the Commodore 64.

Mystic Castle - This is a version of "Westfront to
Apse" for the Commodore 64. Uses Machine Language (ML)
for a scrolling 'window' effect (common on the C-128,
but quite laborous for the C-64). Load with LOAD
'mystic castle',8. Works on VICE, MESS, and most
others. Make sure that "True Drive Emulation" is
turned ON. For the Commodore 64.

Sea Hunter - A text adventure for the Commodore 128
andd Plus/4. Nothing remarkable, except that it works
on both computers. Works on VICE, MESS, and most
others. For the Commodore Plus/4 and 128.

Shinan Road - A small text adventure for the Commodore
64. Explore a local village and find out what the
natives are up to. Works on VICE, MESS, and most
others. For the Commodore 64 and 128.

Enchanter:West Front to Apse - Version 7.05. The
original, obviously modified, from 1994-5. This is the
game that started it all! Slightly enhanced from the
July 2003 version. Works on VICE, MESS, and most
others. For the Commodore 128.

Merlin's Quest - Find the enchanted Goblet! A text
adventure that was squeezed into the limited memory of
the Commodore 16 (all of 12,275 bytes). Also works on
the Plus/4. As for emulators, you may need to find the
right one first, as it is finicky about many of them.
For Commodore 16 and Plus/4.

Westfront to Apse II - This is the sequel to the first
text adventure I ever wrote (circa 1993). It's fairly
small, and simple, but it stands as the basis for all
of my present-day adventure game engines. Works on
VICE, MESS, and most others. For Commodore 64, Plus/4
and 128.

Westfront II: Eight Trials of a Warrior - An 80-column
text adventure for the Commodore 128. Forerunner to my
PC game "Westfront PC: The Trials of Guilder". Works
on VICE, MESS, and most others. For the Commodore 128

Westfront 64/+4 - A version of "Westfront PC: The
Trials of Guilder" for the Commodore 64 and Plus/4.
Even has Faldor the bodyguard, which turned out
difficult to implement. Works on VICE, MESS, and most
others. Plus/4 emulators may have difficulty with it,
so experiment to find the right one. For the Commodore
64 and Plus/4.

Westfront VIC-20 - A version of "Westfront PC: The
Trials of Guilder" for the Commodore VIC-20. This one
was a toughie to implement, but I trimmed it down as
much as possible and released it in early 2003.
Requires 16K of memory expansion. Works on VICE, MESS,
and most others. For the Commodore VIC-20 (with 16K
memory expansion).

Paul's 8K Adventure - As a personal challenge, I
decided to write an adventure game in just under 8KB
of RAM. The result is the game you see above. Actually
very complete (a minor miracle considering how small
the file is!) Works on VICE, MESS, and most others.
For the Commodore 64 and 128.

West Front to Apse 64 - They laughed. They scoffed.
People said this wasn't possible. Making a C128 game
fit into the C64's smaller memory? But guess what?
They were all wrong! As complete as the mammoth C128
version, with only minor changes! Works on VICE, MESS,
and most others. For the Commodore 64.

Alesian Plains - You awake in the Alesian Plains with
no memory of who you are. Find out in this engaging
quest set in a world unlike any other! Works on VICE,
MESS, and most others. For the Commodore 64.

Wizard Castle - A mysterious castle suddenly rose out
of the ground not too long ago. The locals referred to
it as "Wizard Castle" -- right before they fled to the
hills! Just what is Wizard Castle? And what lurks
beyond the drawbridge? Only one way to find out! Works
on VICE MESS, and most others. For the Commodore 128
and Plus/4.

Westfront II - The sequel to Enchanter: West Front to
Apse! This game was written in 1996, right after the
completion of my second adventure game. Includes
Westfront II versions 4.6, 5.5 and 6.0. Works on VICE
MESS, and most others. For the Commodore 64 and 128.

That's all for now. I'll add some more later on (when
time permits). You can also check out my Commodore
64/128 Utilities Page for useful Commodore utilities,
programs and sprite editors.

Just what is B-Venture 1.0? The smallest text adventure I have ever written that also includes MUD-like gameplay and classic text adventure action reminiscent of games by Scott Adams and David Malmberg (although admittedly not as advanced).

Development History

For many years, I've been striving to write the smallest possible text adventure. I remember picking an arbitrary number, but for purposes of my failed memory I believe 4K was the limit I set for myself. Once that was achieved, I went about writing a game in under 3K. I tried getting it below 2.5K of RAM, but some game features would have had to disappear, which I thankfully did not wish to see happen.

I wrote the smallest possible text adventure I could (in just under 2.7KB of RAM). It took me a few days to optimize fully, but the total program size is 50 lines of QBASIC code, and requires a QBasic-compatible BASIC interpreter to play. Does not work under GW-Basic for some odd reason, but should work fine on QBasic, UBasic and PowerBASIC for MSDOS.

The game is remarkably large for such a small program, spanning nearly 20 full rooms, with a forest, castle, meadow, lake, town and even a tree you can climb (where a small hut rests atop a branch). The game verbs include GO,GET,DROP,USE,INVENTORY,LOOK and others. There is even a fighting mode where the player can engage other monsters in battle. Although the game is too small to include statistics for the player, winning each battle raises the player hit points by 99 with each victory. Items such as the ARMOR, CLOAK and HELMET protect the player during battle. There is even a SWORD the player can wield while engaged in combat. Did I mention I squeezed all of this into only 2,638 bytes of RAM?

How to play

The goal of B-Venture 1.0 is to defeat an evil vampire residing within the castle. The castle is guarded by a hellish werewolf with fiery eyes and a mean streak. The rest of the adventure is populated by a few other creatures, as well as several items the player can use (e.g. armor, equipment, etc.)

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